Strickmich! Club 2017: Das Mondschaf

Our beloved Mondschaf (“Moon-Sheep”) is back and will dye for Strickmich! Club 2017! I am really excited about this, as Sabrina Gleiß has already proved in Strickmich! Club 2015 that she is able to produce the most intensive, fun colors on lovely yarn bases. I had lots of fun designing with her yarn, and our club knitters loved it, too.

Lapislazuli – das Tuch aus dem Strickmich! Club 2015

So I was more than happy when Sabrina wrote to me last summer that she would like to partake again. “I got lots of feedback from Club members last time who loved the design and the yarn”, Sabrina says. Also, some knitters seemed to be a little sad they had missed the sign-up and had to wait six months for the yarn and the pattern, “So I thought if I dyed for the Club again, they would get a second chance!”, Sabrina says.

Sabrinas yarns are colorful and creative, because colors have always been her favorite toy: “As a kid, I adored my box of crayons!” Later she went on to study Media Design and worked building websites, logos and billboards. But the fast pace in this business did not agree with her. An acute hearing loss forced her to slow down, and she found that knitting was a good way to relax. Soon she discovered handdyed yarns, was fascinated by the colors – but nevertheless found that most of them were not quite to her taste. “I just do not like it that much if a yarn pools where it is not supposed to”, Sabrina says. When she knit a pair of handwarmers and ended up with big black blobs on them, she decided to find a better way. And so she started dyeing yarn herself, with the intention of having them look interesting and variegated, but without any inclination to pool.

The dyeing turned out to be a lot of fun, and she found herself with much more yarn than she could knit up herself. So she put up a few skeins on her website Das Mondschaf, and soon she had her own yarn dyeing business going. Nowadays she is keenly awaited by knitters in Germany when she presents her yarns at yarn festivals north and south.
“I am getting so many positive reactions and compliments from knitters, it’s wonderful!”, Sabrina says. Her partner Jens, who works as a magician, is always with her, helping with her booth, the selling and transportation – and that is probably necessary: Without a little magic, there would be no explanation why the two of them are still able to fit all the yarn, shelves and equipment in to a tiny, tiny Seat Ibiza from the 1990s (a car so small it would not exist in the US!), which they use to drive to yarn festivals all over the country.

Today she dyes glowing semisolids, harmonic multicolors, and fun color-sprinkled yarns. One of the most beloved colorways in her shop is named “Einhornpups” (“Unicorn’s…” ahem… wind?) which results in multicolored sprinkles on a bright background when knit up. “My favorite kind of multicolor right now!” Sabrina says.

And for all of you who have been asking themselves why her shop is named “Das Mondschaf” (“The Moon-Sheep”)? “I like this name because it sounds so dreamy. Also, I love the night, because people slow down and everything is nice and calm. During summer nights, I like to sit outside and watch the moon.”